


Screwdriver

by betawho



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Drabble, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-14
Updated: 2012-05-14
Packaged: 2017-11-05 09:02:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/404635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/betawho/pseuds/betawho
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He knew he had to build her the sonic screwdriver she had at the Library...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

He'd done it. He'd perfected the sonic screwdriver. It now had the thought-mail circuit that would allow him to upload River to the computer at the Library.

He stared down at the screwdriver on his workbench like it was the foulest thing in creation. He'd incorporated every failsafe, every signal booster, and every enhancement he could think of into it.

It had a fingerguard, dampeners, and red settings. It had functions even his own sonic didn't have. Every possible function he could think of that might help keep her safe. Who knew how long it would be between the Towers and the Library for her. And she was even more prone to falling into dangerous situations than he was.

He hated it. He wanted to break it, and smash it, and put it in the particle converter and reduce it to its component atoms!

But he had to give it to her. He didn't dare wait any longer, life was too uncertain, and if he were to get himself killed before he gave her the sonic there'd be no saving her at all. He still didn't know how to save her from the computer. CAL's virtual world inside the computer core was as close to the Panatropic Net in the Matrix as he could get, now that Gallifrey was gone. It was as close to his people's way of preserving their loved ones as he could give her.

But there had to be a way of bringing her back. The computer wasn't a permanent solution. He knew there were ways of reviving Time Lords from stored memories and DNA. The Master had been resurrected in just such a way. Given a whole new cycle of regenerations.

He'd never felt easy about River giving him all her remaining lives. He was sure it had been instinctive overkill, her natural determination to do something and keep pushing until she got it right. But she'd given him too much. He cherished every breath he took, every surge of life through his veins, was part of her.

He was connected to her, in ways she probably didn't understand. But he would never give it up. He didn't want to, it was part of him now. _She_ was part of him. Just like she was part of the Tardis. If, somehow, he were to die before she did, the Tardis would go to her. And that's the way he would want it.

But that was all immaterial now. He looked down at the screwdriver laying on his workbench. It was only a temporary solution. He swore that to himself. He'd find a way to restore her, to give her back a full set of regenerations. To run with her through all time and space, in all different faces. And if not...

Well, he'd added another modification. Linked through the Tardis telepathic circuits. If he couldn't save her before his own death, well...

It was the Time Lord way...


	2. Chapter 2

Epilogue:

"So, shall we do diaries?" River asked, twinkling at him. She pulled out her diary, old and battered, crammed full of adventures, worn and precious with love and memories, and perhaps the mud of alien swamps.

He took heart from that thick battered book now. He'd given it to her, he'd made it special, bigger on the inside, so that no matter how many memories she crammed into it, it would never become too large to carry with her.

There was never a last page. He'd made sure of it. As he'd make sure now. He hadn't waited until he had as many adventures between them as she did. He'd only started to keep a diary of his own, and it was far more slender than hers. That's why he'd come now...

While they still had time...


End file.
